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#1 2010-06-05 05:03:30

linuxraptor
Member
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 8

[SOLVED]GRUB issues after several fresh installs.[SOLVED]

Hey, Experts!
Here's the deal.  I <3 Arch Linux.  I have several systems running it (including the one I'm typing on) so I'm familiar with the install process.  Recently, however, I completed a fresh install and ended up with the dreaded "Error 15: File not found" GRUB error.  I tried re-installing GRUB (which I'm usually pretty good at sad ) with no success.  I tried burning the media more than once and also moving back to the old 2009.08 release.  I've completed the /arch/setup process several times with no luck.  I've even tried switching out hardware... Any suggestions? I'm pretty desperate at this point.

Here's what the actual error is:

   Booting 'Arch Linux'
root     (hd0,0)
  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/012009c3-f577-4524-8949-87bca3507bf ro
     [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x3200, size=0x1c8a00]
initrd /kernel26.img

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

EDIT:

$ fdisk -l

Device        Boot     Id     System
/dev/sda1      *        83     Linux
/dev/sda2               82     Linux swap
/dev/sda3               83     Linux
/dev/sda4               83     Linux

Also, last but not least!
/grub/menu.lst

# (0) Arch Linux
title      Arch Linux
root     (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/012009c3-f577-4524-8949-87bca3507bf ro
initrd   /kernel26.img

UPDATE!
Looks like I am MISSING /kernel26.img! 

$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt && ls -a /mnt
.   ..   System.map26   grub   lost+found    vmlinuz26

How can I build myself a new /kernel26.img?

Any help is appreciated.  Even suggested search criteria.


EDIT #3:
So arch has a way of rebuilding the initial ramdisk (/kernel26.img).
Here's the command:

mkinitcpio -p kernel26

So I run the command and watch the output and I see:

==> Building image "default"
==> Running command: /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.30-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26.img
:: Begin build
:: Parsing hook [base]
:: Parsing hook [udev]
:: Parsing hook [autodetect]
:: Parsing hook [pata]
:: Parsing hook [scsi]
:: Parsing hook [sata]
:: Parsing hook [filesystems]
:: Generating module dependencies
:: Generating image '/boot/kernel26.img' .../sbin/mkinitcpio: line 279: /boot/kernel26.img: No such file or directory
FAILED
=>FAIL

And this output repeats itself for the fallback image.  Why would it tell me that /boot/kernel26.img doesn't exist if it is supposed to be creating it in the first place!?
Here's where I'm looking:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio
As always, I'll post my results.

EDIT #4:
Bottom line: I was using the wrong command to build the ramdisk.  Even the mkinitcpio ARCH WIKI says to use the command above, but I believe it is incorrect.  I successfully created an image using:

mkinitcpio -g kernel26.img

Now the problem is that during bootup, ARCH won't recognize /dev/sda1.  Error:

Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda1 ...

Root device '/dev/sda1' doesn't exist,attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device ids for /dev/sda1'
ERROR: Unable to detect or create device '/dev/sda1'
You are being dropped into a recovery shell

It doesn't matter if I change 'root=/dev/sda1' to the UUID-type configuration that comes natively, I get the same error.
According to the livecd's 'fdisk -l' above, the drive is, in fact, /dev/sda1.  So what is the problem? Is no one else having these errors?
And I guess I'm off to my research again...
Anyone have a morsel of help?  Even knowing people are seeing this out there would be nice. I'm feeling lonely sad

Last edited by linuxraptor (2010-06-05 16:50:55)

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#2 2010-06-05 08:18:20

linuxraptor
Member
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED]GRUB issues after several fresh installs.[SOLVED]

SOLVED.

I've been looking at two websites:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … .27t_exist
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

According to these websites, there is only one possibility: incorrect configuration.  It sounds complicated, but since it didn't boot far enough to reach rc.conf and since the livecd and grub saw the correct /boot partition as /dev/sda1 and hd0,0, respectively, the problem must lie in the mkinitcpio config.

According to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, I was loading hooks base, udev, autodetect, pata, scsi, sata, and filesystems.  This is the default configuration and it seems pretty bulletproof, considering it loads almost everything any simple user would need.  I specified the configuration this time:

mkinitcpio -g kernel26.img -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

And apparently it built the initrc successfully.  After a reboot it still would not fully boot.  I checked my configurations over and over again, but they were as they should be.

I realised after all this that even though I changed mirrors for downloading the original installation media, I contacted the same pkgbuild mirrors every time.  After checking my configurations over and over and noting the the original 'mkinitcpio -p kernel26' failed every time, I finally came to the conclusion that the mirror I am using currently contains a bad 'mkinitcpio' package.  After re-installing and choosing other random mirrors, I proved my theory.  The initial ramdisk compiled automatically and successfully.  A successful and flawless installation, all the way through.

The bad packages reside on mirrors:

http://cs.vt.edu
ftp://cs.vt.edu

I had several other inexplicable errors during installation when using these mirrors, such that after all of my configuration, I could not set my root password.  The process would fail after interrupting an infinite loop.  I believe there are several packages on these mirrors that are faulty and I request, for the sake of the community I love, that they all be checksummed and re-mirrored.

I would like this thread to be posted as [SOLVED] and that the computer science department at Virginia Tech review their software packages.

EDIT:

I have submitted a task report to the Arch repositories:

http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/19714

It's 3:30 AM... God I hope someone buys me a beer for this... :-P

Last edited by linuxraptor (2010-06-05 08:32:44)

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